


The Book of the Queens of Old Earth in Exile

by raspberryhunter



Category: Megillat Ester | Book of Esther, תנ"ך | Tanakh
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Canonical Character Death, Don't Have to Know Canon, F/F, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Slow Burn, dislike to love, giant ants, human/alien (mis)communication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-18 06:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21590281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspberryhunter/pseuds/raspberryhunter
Summary: They called her a queen, though she was not one: but the circlet of light on her head and the ceremonial robes she wore gave her the semblance of one to the Terrans in the city of Zsa, the Terrans who had been carried away from Old Earth when it was conquered by the Psyn.She was not a queen, but the Terran Liaison to the Empress of the Psyn; and now she was no longer that.
Relationships: Esther/Vashti
Comments: 58
Kudos: 55
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	The Book of the Queens of Old Earth in Exile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [serephemeral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/serephemeral/gifts).



> Many many thanks to my wonderful betas zdenka and sprocket and iberiandoctor, who made this a much better fic than it would have been without them.
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

**Prologue: Vashti**

They called her a queen, though she was not one: but the circlet of light on her head and the ceremonial robes she wore gave her the semblance of one to the Terrans in the city of Zsa; they called her a queen, as in the ancient stories they had taken from Old Earth, when they were carried away, with no hope of return.

She was not a queen, but the Terran Liaison to the Empress of the Psyn; and now she was no longer that. A queen, Vashti thought bitterly, could not be set aside so lightly, would not be told on a moment's notice that she would no longer be in that position.

Still, she thought; still, it was not as bad as it could have been. Statira, the Liaison before herself, had been killed quickly and easily by the alien Empress's claw before she had had a chance to react. No one knew then, either, what she had said or done for Xrxis to have taken such exception to it, and none of the Psyn Royals, much less the Empress herself, ever explained why they did the things they did.

So she could not argue with the decision to depose her as Liaison, even if she did not know why it had happened, why the Empress had so suddenly decided that she was no longer worthy of being the Liaison.

She wondered if the Palace AI would tell her, whether Xrxis had communicated something of what she could have done wrong to Hmin, through the mindlink the Empress had with the AI. But she did not think she would find answers there; Hmin had always been maddeningly vague when asked these kinds of questions.

She had prepared and striven to be Liaison for much of her life. She had been noble-born, one of the Terrans the Psyn had taken as babies to be raised in the creche-nurseries of the Palace. It was a privilege afforded to all subject and exiled races: that their best and brightest would be raised like one of the Psyn’s own royal-larvae, to be taught to understand Psyn speech and Court etiquette by teachers trained by the Palace AI, so they would be fit to communicate as Liasions to the Psyn. She had excelled in the competitions and games between the noble-born Terrans; she had been chosen over the others to be Terran Liaison by the Empress, after Statira. 

But now that was over. There was nothing for her now, but to wait for the next Liaison.

**1\. Esther**

"So what happens now that we have no Queen?"

Esther nodded. "That's a good question, Ezra." They always had a short time at the beginning of the school day to talk about whatever they wished, and she had known the children would want to talk about the latest news. 

She looked affectionately at the class of children on their study mats, in their makeshift classroom at the back of Esther's aunt's jewelry store. They were not yet old enough for adolescence, with its increased responsibilities and privileges, but old enough to be aware that they were strangers in an alien land, and old enough to be rightly worried about what this kind of change might mean. 

She herself had been shocked by the news. She had seen the noble-born Liaison, in her robes and crown, tall and golden-haired, riding through the streets of the town in one of the infrequent processionals. Esther had thought her distant and too high for mortals, like a star. Such a queenly figure, she had thought, would never be taken from her position, and yet she had been, just like the one before her, and the one before that. Well, perhaps not exactly like Queen Statira, thank goodness; Vashti was still alive.

"Anyone asked Mordecai about it? Mia?"

"Well, yes," said Mia, holding up her tablet-desk. "We did it before you got here." The children did not have a direct voice-link to Mordecai as Esther did, via the pearl in her ear; they would not get one until they started a partial apprenticeship to a trade in a year or two. Until then, the text-link to the human AI through the tablet-desks was quite enough for their purposes. "He gave us information about the process for choosing a new Queen." She hesitated. "I mean Liaison," she said, enunciating the word carefully.

"You can say either, in this class," Esther said to her gently. Mia had a rather analytical mind and a talent for mathematics, which sometimes manifested in her wanting to use exactly the right word without always acknowledging that context might play a role. "When speaking with a Psyn, of course, you must use the word Liaison. So, yes, the Empress of the Psyn will choose a new human Liaison, or Queen, among those who apply."

"And you have to be female, and noble-born, to be a Queen," put in Zach, the oldest boy in the class.

"Female, yes, the Psyn do insist on that. And it is true that it's usually only the noble-born whom the Psyn consider seriously," said Esther. She wondered if all of them knew the history of the noble-born; probably most of them knew parts, but would have to be reminded of the details. When they had first been carried away to Psyn, the Psyn had taken some of the babies at that time to be raised in the Palace, to be trained to communicate with both Psyn and humans. At that time those children, the noble-born, would have been the only ones who could act as Liaison. 

But the city-humans, those not in the palace, had also by necessity had to learn to communicate with the aliens they now had to live among. Thank goodness we brought Mordecai from Old Earth, Esther thought; she knew she was not the first human to be grateful for the AI's existence. Without Mordecai and his programmers to coordinate collecting all the Psyn-human communication data and running his learning algorithms on it, it would have taken much longer to learn the language, and the Psyn did not take well to being misunderstood.

She made a mental note to add that to a lesson in the future, and to tie it to what the children were learning about AI algorithms as well as the history of Old Earth. Later. "But that wasn't really your first question, Ezra, was it?"

Ezra said, trying to look casual, "Not really. We all know there will be another one. What will that Liaison be like?" By which, Esther knew he meant: How will things change? Will they be better, or worse?

"I don't know, because we don't know who it will be," said Esther, wishing she could say otherwise, "and we don't know how she will interact with the Psyn, whoever she is. What would you say to the Liaison, if you could? What should she know about the issues that concern us, and communicate to the Psyn?"

The bell rang: a customer. With difficulty she refrained from making a noise of frustration. Without the customers, there would be no money for the thing she really wanted to do, the school. "Discuss among yourselves on your tablets," she said, "not aloud," and dashed from the room. They all obediently bent their heads over their tablet-desks in silence; they all knew the consequences of displeasing a Psyn. 

A Psyn waited in the shop: vaguely humanoid, but otherwise resembling nothing so much as a much larger version of the small creature known on Old Earth as an ant. She was not much bigger than Esther herself, and with a rounded carapace: a city-worker, Esther knew, and not one of the Royals. Only once, to be sure, had a Royal Psyn come in, towering over her with its flared outer shell, but that once had been quite enough. She very much did not like experiencing an insectoid next to her, larger than she was, with its six large black claws that could instantly tear out a human's throat.

The Psyn waved its antennae in the _request_ configuration Mordecai had taught her as the alien said, _I wish a jewel. Here._ One of her claws tapped on another, by which Esther understood that she wanted a bracelet-like band for the claw. This Psyn was not the first who had asked for something like this; the shop had started to be somewhat popular in the city.

Esther moved her hands above her head into the _give_ and _receive_ configurations, signaling that she would be pleased to exchange such a thing for money. She said aloud in the Psyn language, "I can help you with that. Is there a color you would like?"

_Blue._

"All right." Esther moved her hands to convey _This can be done immediately_ , and brought out a gold band with a sapphire in it, polished in the rounded-cabochon Psyn style. "How about this?"

 _Yes,_ said the Psyn, its antennae moving itself into the _give_ and _receive_ configuration. She took the band from Esther and deposited money into Esther's hand, gave a small bow, and left the store.

Esther let out a breath and rubbed the back of her neck, trying to relax. She did not mind the city-Psyn as she did the Royal Psyn, but they were still not easy for her to deal with. And the Psyn had very complicated principles and rules surrounding exchanges and gift-giving among themselves. Eventually, humans and Psyn had worked out a system for exchanging goods or services, as long as the Psyn and the humans both agreed that a scrupulously fair exchange was being made. Humans trying to cheat the Psyn tended to meet a quick and unfortunate end, and humans trying to bribe the Psyn often did as well.

She was about to go back to the children when she felt a familiar warmth in her earlobe. Her lips quirked. Some days there was always something. She touched the pearl in her earlobe briefly and subvocalized: "Mordecai!"

Mordecai's synthesized voice spoke in her ear. {I saw the Psyn leaving, and the children are engaged in a heated discussion as to whether the Liaison needs to know particulars of their apprenticeship prospects, so I thought you might be free for a moment.}

She laughed softly. The pearl in her ear was also a video and audio sensor, and the tablets had sensors as well. One could turn it off at any time, of course, but often it was useful for Mordecai to be able to glean data from them. "I'll let them hash it out for a bit longer, then, before I interrupt them. What's up?"

Mordecai said, {I would like you to apply to become Liaison.}

Esther blinked. Whatever she had been expecting Mordecai to say, it wasn't that. "Apply to be Liaison? Me?"

{Can you imagine, an opportunity to have someone who actually knows about the humans in Zsa in the position of Liaison? You can't pass up this chance.}

Esther was forced to admit that there was something to what Mordecai had said. No one thought Vashti, and Statira before her, were bad Liaisons, but there was of necessity a delay between issues being communicated to the Palace and something being done about them. And it was a common complaint that the Palace-bred noble-born couldn't really understand the issues of the city humans. "Still, though, why me in particular?"

{You speak with the Psyn better than most humans, and your understanding of the human community and their issues is excellent as well. You are the best candidate, Esther.}

Esther supposed that if Mordecai said it, it must be true, but she did not particularly wish to do so. She understood that if it was something she could do, she must. But how could she be the best candidate? "But the Empress would never take me. I'm not nobly born, I wasn't born in the creche or given their training, why in the world would Xrxis select me? I know you aren't linked to the nobly-borns, but they all must have better training than what your algorithms have figured out --"

Mordecai said, {I am not sure they do, actually. There is an anomaly I don't understand. My knowledge is necessarily patchy, since I don't have any Palace data, but there are trends that make me think something is not working properly. And that is why you must apply, and then we shall see.}

**2\. Vashti**

Vashti was not under any illusions about her own personality; she understood that she would have hated training her successor, no matter who that successor had been. But there was a distinctive and exquisite torture in being asked to train this common woman, the first non-noble to wear the circlet of light, to be Liaison, since the very first Liaison. This girl, Esther, had been born of a woman's body, instead of decanted by the Psyn scientists; had been raised among a passel of other brats running wild in the city of Zsa instead of studying demurely in a creche-nursery, had not learned the ways of the court and the Royals.

She did not understand why Xrxis had chosen Esther as Terran Liaison, when there were several other nobly-born Terrans of the appropriate age to choose from. Even one of her rivals from the creche-nursery would surely have been better than Esther, though Vashti would not have wanted to work with them either.

And yet somehow Esther, who had never been in the Palace before the last several sixsixdays, looked as comfortable and at ease across from Vashti in the Liaison’s office, one of the many small rooms in the Palace, as one of her creche-mates would have. The Psyn did not use chairs, and the Palace AI's ability to project meant there did not need to be any other apparatus; there was only bare floor. Vashti had expected Esther to be uncomfortable, but Esther did not look at all cramped. Indeed her dark, small body, all curves and roundness, seemed almost more at home there than Vashti herself.

But there was so much work to do that Vashti sometimes despaired of doing it all. She had to admit that Esther was bright, and picked things up quickly, and had already taken on much of the Terran-facing burdens of being Liaison. But there was so much Esther did not know, so much Vashti needed to make sure she knew. And Vashti would not, no matter how she loathed training Esther, do anything less than her best at it. Esther would not fail because of anything Vashti did or did not do. Vashti was too proud for that.

"All right," said Vashti to Esther, "let's go over the banquet protocols again."

"What," said Esther, her lips quirked, "no compliments for taking care of the human-Psyn regulations mix-up with the roads, or mediating the boundary dispute?"

"No," Vashti said. "You are the Liaison; that is your job. You do not get praise for doing only what you are supposed to do." It was true that Esther had known how to do none of these things before, and she had done it competently and effectively, unlike one of the Liaisons that had held that office during Vashti's lifetime. Of course, such Liaisons rarely stayed Liaison, and sometimes also did not stay alive if the Psyn concerned were sufficiently upset, so it was a problem that was generally self-correcting.

Vashti continued, "There are many more opportunities to misstep at the banquets, since there are additional protocols, as well as the fact that many other alien races' Liaisons and noble-born may be present. There is a reason why you have not gone to any before now." She set aside the thought that it was at just such a banquet that she herself had been deposed.

Esther barked a short laugh. "Okay. You don't need to lecture me again. Let's do this."

Vashti nodded approvingly. Esther did have a good work ethic, she could say that much. "Hmin," she said, her voice pitched to carry, "show a vid of the last banquet."

The Palace AI obediently caused the hologram to appear mid-air, as if on a virtual screen. Even after some sixsixdays, Vashti noticed that Esther still smiled a bit when seeing the words and pictures unfurl on what before that had been only thin air. Vashti accepted, grudgingly, that she liked Esther's smile, and would be sorry when Esther was as used to Hmin as Vashti herself and treated it as normal. Vashti wondered, though she had never asked, whether the city-born Esther had ever worked with an AI at all, much less one as sophisticated as Hmin. Esther had never mentioned it.

Vashti pointed at a humanoid alien with fur and whiskers. "Hmin, enlarge." She turned to Esther. "If the Chipt Liaison approaches you at the banquet and offers you a beverage, what do you do?" There was no food at the banquets, though there were still drinks of fruit juice and ethanol, sometimes mixed. Once, long ago in the Psyn history, it was said they ate food at the banquet, but now it was purely a ceremonial ritual, used for the court to congregate and to exchange gifts and court favors. 

Esther stared at the Liaison. "They are so much closer to human than the Psyn... Well. Since she is not a Psyn, I accept with thanks. If a Psyn, I decline unless I understand the particular gift protocol she is initiating. Which I don't," Esther said plaintively.

"I will make up a dossier for tomorrow," said Vashti. "But yes, we do not understand all of them. And yes, that was the correct answer. And if --" she pointed to another humanoid alien, this one hairless but with tufts of hair on its tail and head, and Hmin helpfully enlarged that one as well -- "the Kyric Ambassador approaches you?"

Esther gaped at her for a second, momentarily taken aback. "Ah --" She looked up at the ceiling. After a moment she said slowly, "Kyrin is currently peaceful but has been antagonistic to Psyn, so I would decline a long conversation, but courteously?"

"Yes. Your reasoning is sound." Esther grinned, and Vashti unaccountably felt something lighten in her because of it. She frowned. "But," Vashti said severely, "you must be able to do this at a moment's notice. The Kyric Ambassador will not wait while you work it out!" She sighed. "If you had only been raised in the creche-nurseries --"

She knew it was a mistake. She had known Esther for that long. Esther winced, her grin now entirely gone. "Perhaps I would know more of the Psyn and the other aliens," Esther said, "but I would know less of Old Earth."

Old Earth! The woman was besotted with it. Vashti had known that the city-born told their children of it, but apparently they studied every detail, relentlessly. Even after discouraging Esther's digressions, Vashti now knew more than she cared to about the cities and geophysics and even zoology of Old Earth. Vashti's own thought was that now that most humans were on the Psyn’s planet, Earth was only a rock. There was no value in it, and the creche-nursery teachers she had been taught by were right to speak of it only in passing. "That is probably true," Vashti said, somewhat acerbically.

"It was our home," said Esther softly. "Don't you think --" She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again. "Never mind, Vashti. Back to the banquets -- I have a question."

"Speak." Vashti would not admit it to her, but she was a little grateful that Esther had not escalated the point.

"One of the noble-born humans I met with yesterday mentioned the Scepter ceremony. I had not heard of this before. Is this a usual part of the banquets?"

Vashti's mouth twisted. This was not really any better than hearing Esther rhapsodize about Old Earth. "The Scepter? No. That ceremony does not happen often, only when a Liaison has a special request that the Empress alone may answer, and is in the Empress’s own chambers. If the Empress approves, she puts her mouth on the mouth of the petitioner. It is not -- they don't think about it like a human would, like a Terran would," she said kindly. Of course Esther wouldn't know. "Apparently they used to feed each other this way, a long time ago in their history, and it is supposed to evoke that sort of bond between Empress and subject, without anything actually being exchanged. That comes later, in a separate ceremony."

"Ah." Vashti could see Esther was trying to look dispassionate; she was failing. In fact she looked terrified. Vashti sighed to herself, thinking, _This is why the Liaison needs to be noble-born._ Esther said, only a faint hint of panic in her voice,"I suppose it's like -- like ants. The ones on this planet, not the ones on Old Earth. Maybe the ones on Old Earth too, I don't know. If you watch them with a magnifying glass, you can see that they feed each other like that, the workers feeding the queens. Er. You're sure that there isn't any food involved in this ceremony, right?"

"That's right," said Vashti, with a faint air of bemusement. She supposed it was a reasonable speculation; there was a school of thought among the Psyn philosophers that held the Psyn were descended from the small chitinous creatures that had looked so much like ants that the first Old Earth captives had given them that name.

"And -- I have heard -- this is the ceremony during which Statira died."

Vashti winced. "Not exactly. It was after that. The custom is to use the ceremony to call for a private banquet. In that banquet Statira had asked for the Empress to send some infrastructure aid to the Terrans in Zsa, as they had contaminated water."

Esther nodded. "I remember when the water went bad. But what happened?"

"No one knows," Vashti snapped. Everyone she knew had attempted to dissect that ceremony; every one of them who had been present had requested Hmin's video of the ceremony, had gone over it again and again, trying to figure out what Statira had done wrong, what she had said or done that had caused the Empress's claw to come out -- what, above all, they could do to keep it from happening again.

But no one knew. Statira had performed the ceremony in all particulars, had even given the Empress two gifts of surpassing excellence, and asked for a small thing, only a small amount of aid. Vashti had pulled vids of other Liaisons asking for much more than that, and they had not suffered.

She told Esther this, and Esther said hopefully, "Well, perhaps I won't have to deal with it at all. After all, you didn't have to do it, right?"

"That is correct," said Vashti, not saying: my downfall came before that, even before I performed any such ceremony.

**3\. Esther**

Esther could not shake the feeling that she did not belong in the Palace, that this was not where she was meant to be. The Palace, with its many bare windowless rooms, its interminable tunnel-hallways, made her feel cramped and confined. Several times a day she would briefly make her way to the Palace grounds, just so she could breathe in the outside air and see the sun and sky. She had nightmares, sometimes, of tunnels like the hallways of the Palace that never ended, that curved round and round, leading nowhere.

She missed her aunts and uncles and cousins; she missed the children she taught, and wondered how they were getting along without her. She missed Mordecai. Since she had become an adult and had been presented with her voice-link to the AI, she had never been without him. She could always have turned off the link and rendered Mordecai unable to hear or see through the particular sensors connected to her, but before coming to the Palace she had never been in a situation where she could not talk to Mordecai or hear his words unless she chose not to. But here, Mordecai would not follow. {It is better if the Palace AI does not know you are connected to me,} he'd said. {I've had a couple of run-ins with her -- I asked for some of the Palace data, a while back -- and I think she does not like that there are AIs in the city not under her total control.} So she did not wear her pearl, and missed him every day.

She wished she had his insight and processing power right now, at her first banquet. Esther was used to crowds; anyone who lived in the city of Zsa would have to be. And she had loved the large parties given by the elders of the human community: the loud chaos of everyone talking at once, the noisy embraces and confidences and reminiscences, the children dancing and bouncing up and down and trying to make themselves heard in the clamor.

This banquet was different. Everyone spoke in hushed and delicate voices, different aliens and some humans moving gracefully around. On one end of the great hall the Empress stood, as various Psyn and aliens presented themselves to her; behind her were her drone-consorts, the only male Psyn in the city. Esther had never seen them before; Vashti had told her that they only came out for banquets and other ceremonies. The Psyn drones were smaller than Esther, and each stood perfectly still. Occasionally an alien would speak to one, and he would look towards the Empress for her permission to reply.

Esther herself was surrounded by Liaisons and Ambassadors as well as the noble-born, the Palace-born, of several other alien races also conquered by the Psyn. Vashti, who could still attend banquets, though not stand before the Empress herself, was easily conversing with one of the Ambassadors from a small nearby solar system. Esther envied her poise and calm.

Something tapped her shoulder, and she jumped. Whirling around, she saw the Chipt Liaison. She was struck again by how humanoid the Chipt was: of her height, with fingers and an expressive face, though covered with fur. She wore her ceremonial robes as if she hardly noticed their weight. "My apologies," she said smoothly, and Esther was surprised to hear her speak human language, not Psyn. "I did not mean to startle you."

Somehow Esther doubted that, but let it pass. "Liaison Psametik," she said, bowing. "I am Esther, the Hum-- the Terran Liaison."

"Ah!" said Psametik, with every evidence of surprise, although Vashti had told Esther that she should assume all the others she met had been as thoroughly prepped on her as she was on them. "Vashti is no longer Liaison, is that right? I am pleased to meet you, Lady Esther."

"And I you," she said automatically.

"You no doubt know that we are kindred spirits, your people and mine," said the Chipt Liaison, smiling. The smile showed sharp pointed teeth, sharper than a human's. "And enemies, too. We fought each other long ago, and would have conquered each other if we could." Esther turned up the corner of her mouth at that revision of Old Earth's history. From the human viewpoint, the Chipts had wanted to conquer but had been scared off by Earth's unifying against them. She said nothing. "But now --" The Ambassador shrugged elegantly. "Now we are conquered alike, and have lost our planets and solar systems forever."

Forever, Esther thought. Old Earth was still there, green and blue and white; on clear nights the city-bred humans would take their children out and point to the star that was the Sun shining on Old Earth. But the humans in Zsa had been gone from the planet since the Psyn had conquered them and carried off most of them in their ships, and with no hope of returning. Human books were read and human songs were sung here, in Zsa, but no one alive in Zsa now knew if there were still others back at Old Earth who knew the same books and songs, who watched the stars.

The Chipt was watching her closely, with intelligent, amused eyes. "And so, since we must band together -- Lady Esther, I offer you a gift for you to give the Empress. Since it is your first banquet." Her hand dipped into a pocket of her voluminous robes and came out with a glass-like clear cube, which she presented to Esther with a flourish.

The cube seemed like pure clear glass but was clearly not; inside, pictures played: of Psyn, of Chipt, even of humans. Esther, fascinated, held out her hand.

And before the Chipt could put the cube into her hand, Vashti was there, and in one smooth motion she bowed, pulling down Esther's hand at the same time in what looked like a natural extension of the bow. "Psametik," Vashti purred. "How delightful."

"Vashti." The Chipt did not look delighted; she looked, if anything, a little put out. "I thought you were barred from these events."

"Only from the presence of the Empress. Whom Esther has not yet paid her respects to. Our compliments to you, Psametik, and we shall meet again, I am sure."

Esther murmured a leave-taking as well, and Vashti all but dragged her away. When they were out of earshot, Esther started, "What --"

"Not now," Vashti hissed, her fingers on Esther's arm. "I have said that you are to be presented to the Empress, and that is no lie -- it is past time for you to have done so anyway. And this you must do by yourself." Unspoken, but heard by Esther, was the addendum, _And don't embarrass me._

Esther tried not to tremble with fear and revulsion as they got closer to the Empress and her consorts. She concentrated on the feel of Vashti's fingers on her arm: a light touch, but with strength behind it. Those fingers, Esther thought, would be terribly good at caresses -- oh, stop it, she told herself irritably. Vashti had sat cross-legged across from Esther every day for several sixsixdays, giving her a torrent of information, and at no point had she ever displayed any hint that Esther meant anything to her but an obligation she would rather not perform.

Esther had managed, at least, to distract herself enough that Vashti had been able to take her to face Xrxis. Vashti withdrew; as a deposed Liaison she no longer had the right to stand before the Empress. Esther faced the Empress, as she had not done since Xrxis had chosen her out of all the humans that had applied. At least she did not have to go very close, not close enough to touch, but the Empress still loomed over her, and she still shuddered at even this much closeness. The consorts behind the Empress stared at her, and there was something about their massed gaze that was even more unnerving.

"Here I am, Eminence," said Esther in the Psyn language, and thankfully it did not come out as a squeak.

_Liaison Esther. You were speaking with Liaison Psametik._

Esther wondered whether the Empress had seen her speak to Psametik, or whether she had asked Hmin; the Empress was connected with the Psyn AIs directly through a mindlink, and had no need to use the clumsy microphone-intercom systems that the Psyn subject races used.

"Your servant was speaking with her, Eminence," said Esther. "If this is forbidden, she asks your pardon." Her right hand tapped out _no offense meant_ , lifted slightly from her side.

 _It is not forbidden. I am pleased you are acclimatizing yourself. Your race has suffered by the claws of this Empire. I would be kind to you, to your species, were it possible._ Esther was not sure she understood; was the Empress asking her to say something, or request something? But the Empress went on: _O Liaison, do you request anything of me at this time?_ But the Empress' antennae spread apart in a signal of _formal ritual_ , and not in the _give/receive_ configuration. And by this Esther knew that the words were words only, and not an actual invitation to request anything, or to give anything; at least not now.

"No, Eminence," said Esther in the Psyn language, her left hand vertical and stiff in the sign for _no change, nothing_. "Your servant comes only to give her greetings." Her hands made the signs for _peace_ and _subservience_.

 _It is well, Liaison,_ , said the Empress, her antennae vibrating in the symbol of dismissal, and gratefully Esther fled.

Vashti caught up with her halfway through the room. "That was well done," Vashti said grudgingly. "The Empress was pleased with you, I could tell." Then, as if she could not help herself, the words spilled from her: "What were you doing with your hands?"

Esther blinked. "You mean the antennae motions?"

"The what?" Vashti shook her head, looked around at the aliens and people surrounding them, several of whom were looking interestedly in their direction. She bent and said into Esther's ear, "After the banquet, meet me in my room and we will discuss what has happened here."

Esther nodded. 

**4\. Vashti**

The instant the two of them arrived in Vashti's room and the door irised shut behind them, Vashti began, "What --"

At almost the same time, Esther said, "What --"

Esther stopped, but Vashti kept going. "The first and most important thing: what do you think you were doing with the Chipt Ambassador and that gift?" 

Esther took off her circlet, placing it carefully in a corner, and shrugged off the top layer of the heavy silken ceremonial robes. Underneath she was wearing only a satin shift. Vashti averted her eyes. Esther folded the robes and sat down on Vashti's sleeping mat. "Do you think there was something wrong with the gift?"

"No," said Vashti. "Psametik is not the sort to be so unsubtle. More likely the gift itself was perfectly acceptable, but she wanted to invoke some nuance of the gift-giving protocols that you do not know. Possibly that I do not know, come to that." She wondered, not for the first time, if something like this had been the reason for Statira's downfall. "You could have died," she said, giving voice to the fear and anger that had been simmering in her since she had interrupted Psametik's ploy. "Do you not understand? With gift-giving and the Psyn you cannot make a mistake, or it could kill you." Her voice rose. "You cannot play around with Psametik, you cannot play around with this!"

Esther leaned back on Vashti's sleeping mat, against the wall, looking shaken. "I wasn't playing," she said quietly. "I do know that the Psyn are not to be trifled with. I've seen it."

"Then do not make commitments about giving gifts to the Psyn," Vashti snapped. "To anyone. Until you are a great deal more experienced, and perhaps not even then."

Esther nodded, looking a bit cowed. She was all curves and roundness; Vashti felt all bones and angles next to her. If she knelt down and put out a hand, she could touch Esther -- could touch the inside of her wrist, run her finger over the delicate shape of her collarbone --

What was the matter with her? The room was too cold, that must be it. She went to the temperature control of the room and fiddled with it. “I wouldn’t have given it to her in any case, though,” Esther said behind her. “It wasn’t a time to receive or request.”

Vashti turned around quickly. “What? What do you mean?”

“The Empress’s antennae motions,” Esther said. “Didn’t you see?”

“The Empress’s antennae motions” Vashti repeated. “What are you talking about? And does this have something to do with the hand motions you were doing?”

"Well, yes, of course. Surely you learned the motions in the Palace -- it's the easiest way for humans to replicate what the Psyn do with their antennae."

Vashti sat down and stared at Esther. “Are you telling me that their antennae motions are part of their language?”

Esther frowned at her. "Yes! Well, only sometimes is it independently important; usually the antennae are just emphasizing what the spoken words are saying. But occasionally it will modify the whole thing, especially when something is meant as formal speech only, not actionable speech, or vice versa. Like when the Empress was speaking to me, that was mostly formal. Do you mean to say you don't know this?"

"How do _you_ know this?" Vashti heard a faint note of petulance in her voice. She was conscious that it was ridiculous, but she still thought: how can Esther know this, and not me?

"Mordecai," Esther said simply, and at Vashti's look of incomprehension elaborated: "Oh, they didn't give you human history in the creches, you wouldn't know. He's a human AI that is associated with the city humans. He came with us from Old Earth, though he wasn't sentient then. On Old Earth, there were two programmers," Esther said, her voice taking on a slight sing-song quality; this was a story Vashti could see that she had told before. She could see Esther's whole body relaxing into the story. "They were the brother and sister Moses and Miriam, working for the Digital Equipment Corporation. Long before the Psyns came, they constructed the MOR artificial intelligence to help them collect and collate everything we had: our histories, our technology, our culture, our stories. It was a research project, an experiment, to see whether the MOR-DEC-AI could understand human stories, whether it could filter and collate them in ways that would be useful to humans. But when the Psyns came and carried us away, we took the AI with us, as much as the AI held, so that these things would not be lost."

Vashti had become a little lost in the rhythm of the story; almost she could see why Esther felt connected to Old Earth, why she valued being brought up in the way she had been. "But," she said, a little tartly, "all that doesn't explain to me how you know about Psyn antennae motions."

Esther nodded. "I was getting there. There were a lot of humans, in the beginning, who got into trouble with the Psyn. Not intentionally. They would use the Psyn spoken-language translations, and find themselves ignored, or shut out, or taken out of positions or jobs with the Psyn -- oh!" Her eyes locked onto Vashti's.

"Go on," Vashti said tightly, looking away. They had still never talked about Vashti being deposed; it was the one topic that Vashti did not allow in their sessions.

"Or even killed, in some cases," resumed Esther. "So Danielle, that's my mother's father's brother's wife, led a project to modify Mordecai so he could observe and learn the parameters of human-Psyn interactions, using the Psyn AI technology as a template: when the interactions succeeded and when they failed. That was when he became sentient, by the way; it seems to be a side effect of the technology. Anyway, Mordecai needed so many samples that it took years to do a complete analysis, which resulted in a prescriptive set of rules for hand motions during speech that mimicked the Psyn antennae patterns. And then the xenobiologists got hold of it and realized it could be made into something of a language of its own. They are like facial expressions, on a human; how facial expressions can make it clear that what you’re saying is sarcastic, or deadly serious."

Vashti drew in a breath. Her facial expressions, she thought, were probably showing a great deal right now. "Hmin," she said aloud, "replay for me the last banquet at which I was Liaison, at the time I was with the Empress."

Hmin's processors must have been a little sluggish that evening, for there was a noticeable delay before the virtual screen unrolled and the picture flickered into life. Vashti looked much smaller in the vid, next to the large dark form of the Empress.

The Empress said, _Liaison Vashti, what will you?_ and Esther pointed: "Her antennae, there: she is telling you to come with her, and that, there, is the imperative."

The small Vashti, on the screen, bowed and backed away. "Your servant wishes nothing at this time."

Vashti, in the room, watched the picture of herself on the vid, transfixed. "You are saying that I just disobeyed a direct order from the Empress."

"Er. Yes."

"I am fortunate she did not kill me," Vashti said distantly. She was filled with rage. She should have known, and yet she had not! "Esther, you will teach me all of this --" she thought again, and her voice became a little less sure -- "will you?"

Esther raised her chin, and did not smile, but met Vashti's eyes forthrightly. "I will."

**5\. Esther**

Esther was allowed to leave the Palace for the whole evening and night once a sixsixday, once in thirty-six days -- if she had fulfilled her obligations as Liaison, if she had met with all the Terran petitioners, if there was not a meeting or banquet scheduled. If, if, if. But all these conditions had been met today, and she was conscious of nothing so much as a feeling of a heavy load coming off of her shoulders as she got further away from the Palace, a feeling of relief that at least she could return to warmth and security and the foundation of love.

To run into the rooms where her aunts and uncles and cousins and a huge passel of children worked and played and mocked each other, instead of the suffocating hush of the Palace! To sit down to dinner, talking at top speed with those she knew and loved, instead of politely sipping a drink with one who might have daggers under the quiet words -- to see and embrace the children she had taught, to see any children at all, where they were not all hidden away in antiseptic creche-nurseries --

 _How do Vashti and the other noble-born in the Palace stand it all the time?_ she thought, as she hurried through the streets. _Maybe it's different when you grow up your whole life like that. But they're still human..._ She remembered thinking of Vashti as someone above her; now she felt a little sorry for the noble-born woman, who had no idea what life was like outside the Palace. Esther sometimes thought that Vashti might even think she, Vashti, had a better life, which Esther found almost incomprehensible. _How could you not want more than that?_ she thought. She wanted to give Vashti more than that -- if she could take Vashti's hand, and show her all the things she could have -- no. Vashti would never agree to that.

Perhaps in time she would? Vashti had loosened, become a bit less stiff and formal, during the time Esther had trained with her, and even more as she had been herself trained by Esther in the Psyn antennae motions. Sometimes Esther had even caught Vashti looking at her in a way that... well, perhaps she was imagining things she wanted to see. But perhaps in another sixsixday, Esther thought, she might invite her home.

She knocked at the door of her aunts' quarters. Her youngest cousin, only four, opened the door; the light inside streamed out, and her mouth watered as she smelled roasted potatoes and carrots and slibt, a small Psyn domesticated poultry-like creature that was delicious to the human palate.

"Esther!" her cousin shouted. "You're here!" He bounced up and down. "Come, come!" He scurried inside, leaving her to close the door behind her, yelling "The Queen is here! Esther's here! Esther's here!"

She grinned and followed him.

It was odd, coming home, in a way she would never have understood before living in the Palace. Even the simple act of sitting in a chair for dinner was something that she was no longer used to; she found herself having to stop herself from looking around for mats. Everything looked so much more cluttered than she remembered: her uncle's sewing machine in a corner, a child's tunic half-finished; the children's tablet-desks stacked on a shelf; the copper bowls and pans hung from hooks on a shelf in the kitchen. It was all neat and tidy, and yet so different that she realized she had in some way gotten used to the bare small rooms of the Palace.

She had, however, never gotten used to the modified Psyn food she was given in the Palace. While the Psyn had ascertained how to make it compatible with human nutritional needs, they had never seen the need to vary it from its mushy texture or bland taste. And so she reveled in the crispy potatoes and sweet carrots, roasted in the slibt fat; the crunchy greens gathered or grown just outside the city; the firmness and moistness of the slibt.

Focused on the food, it was more than halfway through dinner before she noticed that there seemed to be something off about her family. Everyone was cheerful, but there was something forced about it, something that was not quite right. There were more silences than she was used to, and everyone seemed tense. Afterwards she said to her aunt Jo, "Tell me. What's going on? Is it the store?"

Jo blinked at her, and then tried to smile, but there was something wrong with the smile, as there had been something wrong with the conversation at dinner. "Oh. You don't know. Mordecai told us you might not. I think you should talk to Mordecai. But don’t tell the children."

Esther said, confused, “All right, I’ll talk to Mordecai," and ducked into the children's bedroom to insert the pearl in her ear. She didn't bother to turn the light on, only sat on one of the beds, running her hand over its frame, smoothed and plaited and woven from flexible brownwood branches: another piece of home that she had gotten used to not having in the Palace, where the only items of furniture were mats. In the distance, she heard one of her cousins playing flute, a solitary line of song, the pure notes suspended in the air. It was a song all of them knew, one of the first ones that had been written by the humans on this planet. _How shall we sing the songs of Earth in a strange land?_

"Mordecai?"

{Esther.}

"What's going on? Everyone is looking grim. I don't understand."

Mordecai said, {Hmin sent down two directives to the city-humans today. The first item is to subsume all other AIs in Zsa to be under Hmin's control under a common code base.}

Esther took a minute to digest this. She said, low, "I don't understand. Mordecai, how would you even integrate your code base, it’s all human code! Why would it be phrased like this, instead of asking for a common interface? We don't even think we understand their actual language fully! It doesn't make any sense!" 

{No,} said Mordecai. {No, it doesn't make sense, if you operate from the assumption that Hmin wants my capabilities for herself. My belief, rather, is that Hmin has wanted me out of the way for a while now. She doesn't like that I'm operating off completely alien code and algorithms. It worries her, is my guess. She doesn't know what I'll do next. But yes, she intends to seize my code and software, and probably erase most if not all of it.}

"Mordecai --" Her voice caught. She could not say, _Hmin means your death. She may not know that is what she is asking for, but she will destroy you, everything you are._ The data they could save, all the data that had been uploaded to MOR-DEC-AI, but not what made Mordecai himself.

{But Esther,} Mordecai said into her ear, {there's something else.}

Esther scowled. "All right. What else could there be?" What more than your life, Mordecai?

{The order has come down that all Terrans are to be sterilized: no more live births at all. They will make creche-nurseries, like they have in the Palace for the noble-born Terrans, only it will be for all Terrans. Existing children will be taken there too. Hmin distrusts me, and thinks by this to limit both my influence, if it somehow happens that she cannot kill me, and the possibility that one like myself might be built again.}

"Oh," she said, putting her hand to her mouth in grief and horror. She had thought she was returning to the solid things in the world, her family and people; now she knew how fragile they were, that they could be taken away in an instant. "Oh, Mordecai. This is -- this is the worst thing. It could only be worse if they killed us all. This is worse than one person; this is killing our future." All our stories, she thought, our music, our histories; everything that makes our families, our people; everything that makes us human.

{Yes.}

"But how could I not know about it, being Liaison?" she cried. "Vashti and I go over all of Hmin's directives, every week. There was nothing of it in there."

{Esther, is there anything that has happened at the Palace recently that would have made Hmin more paranoid? That would have caused Hmin to do this, and to go by an indirect route, so you would not hear of it?}

"No," said Esther, and then she remembered telling Vashti all about Mordecai. In the Palace, where Hmin had sensors in every room and could understand all that was said. "Oh," she said. "Oh no." She told Mordecai what she had said. "Oh Mordecai. What have I done?"

Mordecai said, {Only sped up something that would have happened anyway. I think Hmin would have done this eventually. I have some evidence that she has already been working with the Chipt Ambassador to try to destabilize the human position in Zsa. }

“Oh,” said Esther. “Mordecai, I should tell you --” And she told him what had happened at the banquet with Ambassador Psametik.

{Yes. Psametik must have meant for you to present the gift to the Empress when she had indicated it was not time for it. Perhaps you would have been deposed as well, then.} 

"Vashti said something like that," said Esther, remembering Vashti shouting at her that she could have been killed, the fear and worry for Esther prominent on her normally impassive face.

{Be careful, Esther. I don't have evidence of this, but you never know: Vashti may be on Hmin's side. She may be hiding things from you --}

"She's not," said Esther immediately. "She wouldn't."

It was something she knew about Vashti, after all this time with her. Vashti might mock her, or she might scorn her, or she might ignore her. But she would not deceive Esther outright; it was not in her character to do so. There was something there that Esther could hold on to, and she felt unaccountably cheered by the thought, in the middle of these woes.

{So now that you understand these things--} said Mordecai. {Jo wants to fight. But I think there may be another way.}

"I know," whispered Esther. "I know what you're going to say."

{You are Liaison. Who knows,} said Mordecai relentlessly, {whether you have not come to the Liaison’s position for such a time as this?}

"I understand," said Esther wretchedly, "I hear you." She put her head in her hands. "Give me a moment." She pressed the pearl in her ear, turning Mordecai's sensors off, and sat for a while by herself, in the dark, thinking. Outside the flute had stopped, and there was a dull muted roar of chatter that rose and fell.

"Esther?" A ribbon of light appeared in the doorway. "Esther, are you here?" It was Mia. "Jo told me you'd probably be here tonight, and I wanted to come see you." Her voice was a little hesitant, which was rare for Mia. "What... are you doing?"

"Hey." All of Esther's teacher-instincts kicked in; here was one of her children who needed her. "I was talking to Mordecai, but I'm done now." Mia nodded. "What's up?"

Mia sat down next to her, in the dark. "Nothing really." She scrunched herself up, her knees to her chest. "Well. Okay. So I have an apprenticeship offer to work for one of the Royal Psyn. Doing space navigation calculations." Even though Mia tried to keep her voice level, Esther could hear the hope and longing in it. “Partial, of course, for now, but it could become a full one as I got older.”

Mia was a little young for a partial apprenticeship, but Esther knew she was ready, intellectually speaking. And yet -- "Working for a Psyn?" Now of all times? But of course Mia did not know about Hmin’s orders.

"That's what my parents said," said Mia flatly. "And Ezra isn't speaking to me. But he wants to do mechanics, there's plenty of work for him here. And there's no job like this in the human community." For obvious reasons; all the ships were Psyn, not belonging to alien exiles. "And I thought you would understand, Esther -- you're working for a Psyn yourself, after all."

Esther looked at Mia, so young, so grown-up, and her heart turned over in her chest. If she did nothing, it was Mia and her friends who would be the last generation who would know where they came from, who they were.

She reached over and squeezed Mia's arm gently. "I am. And I... am glad I'm doing it." She was glad. She was glad to be able to help her people, glad to learn all she could from Vashti. She said, "It's hard, you know. The Psyn are different than we are... and sometimes it makes things at home look different, too."

"I think I would be okay with that." Mia said, with the stubbornness Esther recalled all too well from their classes.

"I think you would be too," Esther said softly. "As long as you remember who you are, and where you come from, all right? But… look, let me tell you something. There’s some… friction between the humans and the Psyn, right now. I think it can be fixed. But it’s probably part of what is worrying your parents right now. Is it possible to hold off for another sixsixday? I think it will be much easier for you and them to agree at that point." Whatever happened, she thought.

The flute had stopped playing, but now it started again, its melancholy sweetness cutting through everything else. _If I forget thee, O Earth, let my hands forget their skill!_ Mia thought, nodded. “That makes sense. I can wait that long. And yes. I’ll remember.” She stood up; stretched, sighed. "Esther... thanks. Really."

Esther also stood up. "You're welcome." And Mia had helped her as much as she might have helped Mia; she knew what she must do, and why she must do it. "Let's go find the others."

**6\. Vashti**

Vashti did not know what annoyed her more about the evenings that Esther departed from the Palace: that Vashti herself found the time to pass more slowly when Esther was away, or that Esther was usually more cheerful and talkative when she returned, as if her city-born friends were more desirable than the world of the Palace. The way she smiled when she came back from an evening away -- Vashti carefully did not say to herself, I want to make her smile like that. I want her to smile at me like that, not just because she is thinking of those people.

But this time, when Esther had returned, she was not cheerful, nor did she speak happily as she usually did. Vashti was even more annoyed by this. If Esther were to be absent from the Palace -- if she were to ignore her Liaison duties and studies for a whole evening -- then what right had she to mope?

Especially when Vashti herself had needed to speak to Esther, speak to her urgently, and she had not been there.

At least Esther was there now, and when Vashti proposed a stroll outside of the Palace while they discussed the week's list of tasks, Esther accepted with alacrity. It was almost as if she had been looking for an excuse to do exactly that.

They walked well together, Vashti thought; Esther’s stride was shorter than Vashti’s, but she also walked faster, so they could travel at the same speed. The only wrinkle was that Esther seemed to already know many of the servants working around the Palace, both the ones who were Terran and the ones who were not, and they had to stop multiple times in the tunnel-hallways so that she could inquire of one whether her sister were well or commiserate with another on his arm injury. Vashti herself had never found any reason to engage one of them in conversation, besides requesting them to perform their duties.

Finally they came to the grounds outside the Palace. Esther had by now shown Vashti pictures of gardens of Old Earth: both wild gardens with sprays of flowers running wild and tended gardens with immaculately geometric shapes of green. The Psyn palace grounds looked like neither of these: the servants had bent and formed the pliable branches of the orangewood plant to form hedges defining pathways through the grounds, which was the only decoration save the mound of the Palace itself, with its many entrances, rising high into the sky. And yet there was a beauty to it, Vashti thought.

But the important thing was not the shape of the grounds, but the fact they were outside of Hmin's fine-detail sensor range. Esther said abruptly, "Vashti, I wanted to talk to you without Hmin around."

"What a coincidence," said Vashti dryly. "I, too, wanted to do so. Go ahead." She motioned with her hand.

Esther burst out, "Hmin plans to kill Mordecai! And she has further plans -- to have all humans -- Terrans -- brought up in creche-nurseries. Did you know?"

"No, I did not know," said Vashti. Now that was interesting. And of a piece with what she had realized. She walked a little faster. “I suppose Hmin does not like what you were saying about Mordecai, the other evening.”

“Mordecai said something like that as well.” Esther sighed. “I must be the only one stupid enough not to realize Hmin was always listening, inside the Palace. And after living with Mordecai in my ear, too!”

Vashti shrugged. “It was bound to happen at some point, you know. Better that it happen when we can do something about it.”

“Mordecai said that too. But why do you think that?”

Vashti closed her fists tightly. “If you call yourself stupid, Esther, so also am I. I did not realize until last night something that should have occurred to me when you first showed me the antennae motions. Esther, _why was I not taught them?_ ”

Esther looked surprised. “I don’t know much about the creche-nurseries — perhaps we should talk about them soon — but it took Mordecai’s algorithms a long time and a lot of data to put it together... I had thought that your teachers had not realized it themselves.”

Vashti said flatly, “Hmin, _who is a Psyn AI_ , is in charge of teaching the children in the creche-nurseries. She tells the teachers what to teach.”

“Oh,” Esther said, the barest whisper.

Vashti nodded grimly. “Yes. She must have known. One could not be made by Psyn and not understand a fundamental part of communicating with them. She has been sabotaging Terrans — humans — for a while. Not always, perhaps. It is hard to find recordings or documents from before this Empress’s time, but when I looked today, it looks as if at least some version of them was known earlier.” Vashti frowned. She hoped she had been careful enough that Hmin had not guessed what she was doing; she thought she had, but one could never be sure. "And I should not be surprised if she was somehow collaborating with Psametik as well."

"Mordecai has evidence that she is," Esther said, shivering. "And this is who is going to be in charge of teaching all the human children from now on."

Vashti stopped walking and turned to Esther. “You are the Liaison. You would not have raised this with me unless you were going to deal with it. Unless —“

Esther took a deep breath. nodded. “The Scepter ceremony. To see if the Empress will help us. And now that we know about the antennae motions, I shouldn't run into the problems Statira did."

"But --" said Vashti, and shut her mouth on the word, but it was too late. Esther tilted her head and folded her arms mulishly. Then Vashti knew that Esther had come to know her, her words and expressions, as well as she had come to know Esther; and that Esther would not let this go until Vashti spoke. Finally she said reluctantly, "I looked at the vids of Statira's death while you were gone last night. There was nothing there. Perhaps knowing these things would have helped, but I think something else went wrong, something else that we do not understand about how the Psyn communicate, or about gift-giving." Something else, she thought, that Hmin could have told them, but did not.

"All right," Esther said, and Vashti tried to ignore the way her voice shook. "That is as it is. Look. I've thought about it. You don't need to become involved. The only thing I need from you -- I need you to show me exactly how the Scepter ceremony works, so I'm prepared, so I don't crack. And then we shall see. If I perish, I perish."

"I can do that," Vashti said, thinking inside her head, it is nothing, she asks you because you are the one assigned to her, the one who can tell her what she needs to know. It means nothing.

Esther moved a little closer to Vashti. "No time like the present -- better do it while we're still out of Hmin's range, so she doesn't know." There was a look in her eyes that Vashti did not understand: it said that she would go where Vashti went, would follow where she led.

"Like this," said Vashti, putting her mouth on Esther's in the cold clinical way she remembered from seeing the vids with Statira. She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the feeling of Esther’s lips, the softness of them; trying to ignore the fire rushing through her head and body; thinking all the while, _it is nothing, it is nothing_.

 **7\. Esther**

Esther stood at the door of the Empress’s chamber. The room was larger than hers or Vashti’s, but not nearly as large as Esther had expected; it was bare save for the Empress herself, a shelf filled with what Esther thought must be the food of the Psyn, and two of the consorts, who quickly scuttled away and disappeared through another door when she came in.

She stepped forward, toward the Empress. As long as she focused on her feet, and did not think about how every step brought her closer to the Empress, she could keep walking.

But as she came close, her step faltered. She had never been so near to the Empress. If she reached out she could touch the alien. And what came next --

The fear almost consumed her. She could not move. She thought of Mordecai. She thought of Mia.

She thought of Vashti, the one human contact she had found in this cold palace, and what Vashti had shown her. It had not been bad; it had not been painful; Vashti had said the Empress would not cause her pain either, and Vashti did not lie. It would not be painful.

Unless the Empress killed her, of course.

No; she had Mordecai's training, and Vashti's training, and had practiced. She would be fine.

Unless whatever had led to Statira's death led to hers as well.

She drew in a breath. She stepped all the way to the Empress. The Empress towered above her, all shiny thorny black carapace, the alien's compound eyes regarding her like collections of small glittery mirrors. 

"Empress," Esther said, her arms spiraling around her head to signal _supplication_ and _calmness_ , "Your servant asks that she might find favor in the Empress's sight, and thanks her for her great kindness to her servant."

The Empress's antennae vibrated into the position of _give_. Esther relaxed a tiny bit, but only a very little, knowing what must now come. The Empress said, _Approach, then, O Liaison._

Esther tried not to shiver as the jaws came closer to her. She did not think she entirely succeeded. The Empress's jaws touched her lips, gently.

Vashti had been right, Esther thought crazily, her thoughts ricocheting everywhere at once. She had been right; there was nothing sexual in it at all. She was going insane, but the Empress looked -- if a giant ant could look concerned, then she did so. But maybe she was imagining it. Of course she was. The Psyn did not display emotions; that was the whole purpose of their antennae.

And she had been right to practice with Vashti. Because she had done so, because she could imagine it was Vashti, she could hold still, she could keep from running away when every nerve in her body was crying out to do so.

 _Liaison,_ said the Empress, stepping back a pace, _I listen. What is your request?_

Esther forced herself to remember what she must do, how she must do it. She moved her hands in the air again in the motions of supplication and requesting calmness, and spoke in the Psyn language. “If your servant has found favor in the sight of the Empress, let her Eminence come tomorrow to a private banquet your servant has prepared for her and the former Liaison, Vashti. And there I will answer what the Empress has asked."

The large glittery eyes regarded her for a moment without moving. _Former Liaison Vashti is no longer to be in my presence._

But her antennae were not fixed in the _no change_ position, and so Esther dared to say, "Your servant understands; and yet perhaps the Empress will find that she who used to be Liaison will be of use to her."

And the Empress said: _I will do as the Liaison has asked._

**8\. Vashti**

The audience over, Esther and Vashti walked back to Vashti's room; it had become their custom to go there to discuss any events they needed to in relative privacy, though of course they went to the gardens, or better yet, to the human habitations, to discuss anything they needed to keep secret from Hmin. 

Esther walked quickly, looking straight ahead, and did not speak.

Vashti’s mind was awash in contradictory emotions. She was jealous of Esther, for so easily, so calmly, performing the Scepter ceremony with the Empress, as if she were noble-born, as if she had been at the court all her life. She was proud of Esther, for remembering all Vashti had said to her. She was worried for Esther; she was not sure she had ever been in the woman’s company for even a minute without Esther asking three questions, much less silent as she was now.

She could not forget her lips on Esther’s. She thrust the feeling down. She could and would forget it.

They continued walking in silence until they had made their way to Vashti's room. "Esther," she said. Her voice was colder than she had wanted it to be; she tried to make it a little warmer. "Esther. You did well."

Esther took off her ceremonial robes, but without speaking or looking at Vashti. Vashti tried again: "How -- how are you doing?"

Esther swung around to face Vashti, and Vashti noticed with a jolt of surprise that tears were running down her cheeks. "Vashti," Esther said, her voice shaking, "kiss me."

"What?" said Vashti, momentarily dumbfounded.

Esther tilted up her face to Vashti's. Tears continued to run from her eyes. "You were right, it was not -- it was not too bad, the Ceremony -- and yet I want, I need, Vashti -- I need to know that I am human, and that, that you are human, and that we can be human together --"

And Vashti bent her head and did what she had wanted to do since meeting Esther, and took her in her arms and kissed her, all that human softness and warmth and passion, and it was hers, it was _hers_. Esther made a noise as Vashti kissed her, and Vashti pressed her close, kissing her neck and arms and breasts, relishing the way she felt Esther's body respond.

As Vashti bore her down onto the bed and Esther moved deliciously beneath her, she thought briefly of Hmin, who must be listening and watching; and she thought: let her watch. Let her think that this is all. Look, Hmin: this is what I desire. And she gave herself up to that desire.

**9\. Esther**

Vashti did not talk about what had happened the night of the Scepter ceremony; neither did Esther. But it continued to happen, without words, each evening. They worked each day through with the usual Liaison business as well as the other preparations they had been making, without even a stray touch of the hand. Then each evening, as they put away their work for the next day, there would be long pauses, and looks, and touches; and then they would come together in a mutual frenzied passion, losing themselves in kisses and caresses and the swelling wave of sensation until they were both spent and exhausted, and held each other until the morning.

Esther did not know what it meant to Vashti; she was not sure she knew what it meant to herself. She had tried not to think about it; there was so much to be done, so much that must happen, that she had no time to think about it during the day. Except that from time to time would come to her, unbidden, the feel of Vashti's lips against her neck, or her fingers, touching her, coaxing Esther's body in a gentle way that Esther had never thought to associate with Vashti, or Vashti's voice, low in her ear, unsteadily saying her name, the only time she had ever heard Vashti losing control --

Perhaps Vashti had only been indulging her, because she had been overwrought. Vashti could not really understand how Esther felt about anything; it was not her fault, but how could she, with the way she had been raised, the way her life had been? And yet, Vashti had helped her with her plan, was helping in the selection of the gifts for the banquet, and had drilled her in the sequence of what she must say and what she must do. So she must understand, at least a little.

But how could Esther love someone who did not understand how important being human was to her, how important Old Earth was, even if they were no longer there?

Did she love Vashti?

No, she must not think about it now. 

She stood in the small banquet-room she had prepared, waiting for the Empress to enter, and knew she was thinking about Vashti partially so that she did not have to think about how close to death she was; somewhere, here, was what had killed Statira, and might unknowingly kill her. But now she would do what they had planned.

It was easier here than it had been at the Scepter ceremony, partially because Esther had a table between herself and the Empress. She internally gave thanks to whatever ancestor of the Psyn Royals had done away with the part of the banquet ceremony that involved food; she would have not been able to keep any of it down.

And Vashti was there beside her, and Esther drew strength from her presence as the Empress came in.

Esther looked up at the Empress and swept a hand in front of her, indicating the gift there. She and Mordecai and the other humans had deliberated and consulted with Vashti for three days as to what to give to Xrxis. The presents could not be too technologically advanced, Vashti had insisted, lest they challenge Psyn technology, but they had to be of impeccable craftsmanship.

In the end, they had decided upon a mechanical timekeeper with two main faces. One kept time in the Psyn way, with Psyn days and hecidays, the dial divided into six markings; and the other in the archaic Old Earth way, with seconds and minutes and hours; around them, another mechanism showed movements of the stars in the Psyn sky and in the sky of Old Earth. And all of it was decorated with gold and silver, chased and engraved in flowing designs, and with beautiful gems, faceted in the Old Earth way, so that light splintered and shimmered, reflecting internally from the different facets, and sometimes split into rainbows when the light dispersed from it. Many humans had worked on it, including some of Esther's students; Ezra had done a little of the work on the interior mechanics, and Mia had done some of the star calculations.

The Empress took it in her claws, turned it over and around while gazing at it intently, and put it back down. _This is precious and finely made,_ said the Empress. _I did not know that your people did this work. And now, O Esther, you have given; what would you receive?_

"Eminence," she said in the Psyn language, with her left palm twisting up in a way that indicated _I give_ , and her right palm twisting down: _I receive_. "Hmin has lately asked for all AIs to be put under her control, code and all. This would kill the principal Terran AI, my friend Mordecai. And he is a friend to the Empress. If you understand what I am saying," Esther said steadily, her hands beating out _peace_ , "it is partially Mordecai's doing, for he is the one who has studied the ways of the Psyn so that we could understand one another better. Vashti, is this not true?"

"It is," said Vashti, also signaling with her hands _change_ and then _peace_ , as they had agreed; and Esther saw with burgeoning hope Xrxis' antennae slowly echoing: _change, peace_.

"Eminence," Esther said, "to kill Mordecai is to kill one who has worked for peace between our peoples. I would ask that you counter Hmin's directive on this matter. And Mordecai would serve you, as do I, as does Vashti. I do not give him to you as a gift, for we Terrans do not give ourselves as objects, but know that he would serve you and the peace between us as well as he has served us in the past."

She took a deep breath. "And I ask too for you to reverse Hmin's directive on raising all Terran children in the creche-nurseries. I cannot tell you that it will benefit you to reverse this directive. I understand it is not how your people live. I can only tell you that it is essential for us to tell our children our stories, to teach them, to let them build on what we know. This gift --" Esther gestured at the timepiece -- "could only have been made by craftspeople who had been taught as youths by others of their own kind. And not to teach our children so would be to kill much of what makes us Terrans what we are."

She sank to her knees, her robes billowing around her. "Eminence, I beg Mordecai's life of you, and more than that, the life of my people. Let us live."

**10\. Vashti**

Vashti did not dare to move, even to breathe, as the Empress said, _I too understand that information is life. But there is another whom we must hear. Hmin, speak._

Hmin spoke via the room intercom: {I have made my determinations.} Her voice was calm as always. {My algorithms have considered all the data that was available. I will not change or deviate. This Empress is too partial to the Terrans. The Empire cannot be great if it does not treat its captives with harshness. If the Terran AI must be unmade, and their people, then so be it.}

There was a small silence. Vashti thought that the Empress must be using her internal connection to Hmin to further query or otherwise control her. Then the Empress said, _I cannot cease the operation of Hmin's directives with her in opposition to me_ , her antennae moving in the way Vashti now understood to mean _puzzlement_. 

Xrxis became very still, her antennae totally unmoving, and stayed that way for a breath and another breath. _Then_ — the voice was overwhelming, not angry, but more overwhelmingly loud than she had ever heard it — _then_ she _must cease._

Vashti heard it, and saw from Esther's expression that she did as well: the click as of something turning off; and the circlet on Esther's head went dark.

"Eminence," said Esther in a small voice, "is this permanent?"

_Yes. Hmin is no more. Another AI will take Hmin's place. I have given the command, and so shall it be. And so also shall it be for those who have aided her in this._

"Oh," Esther said, her hands going to her mouth in what Vashti knew was not rehearsed language for Xrxis, but emotional reaction. "Oh, Hmin."

Only then did Vashti understand that Esther thought of Hmin -- though a Psyn, and AI -- as still a person. A person, as she was or as Mordecai was. And Esther grieved for her death, and sorrowed that she had to die, though Hmin had wished Mordecai's death, and had wished to annihilate the Terr-- the humans.

Vashti, however, knew she was not as kind as Esther. Vashti did not mourn Hmin in the slightest, only rejoiced that the one who had sought to destroy her and her people was slain. She watched Xrxis to make sure that Esther's reaction did not somehow doom her, somehow send the wrong message, but the alien only said, _And now I am indebted again to you and to your AI, this Mordecai. For you and he have made it known to me that Hmin had too much power, and that she would set herself even against me._

The Empress's antennae diverged, making a similar signal for _give_ and _receive_ to the one Esther had made earlier. _Esther, ask of me something else. You have given; now you must receive, and what you have said as yet was nothing for me to give._

Vashti's eyes widened as she suddenly put the pieces together. Now she knew why Statira had died. It was not that Statira had asked for too much. Vashti had known that the Psyn had a finely honed sense of gifting and what might or might not be owed, and the sort of gifts that were exchanged between Psyn, but she had not understood the whole of it. 

Statira had asked for too little for this ceremony. She had made two gifts, and made one small request. And the Empress had interpreted it as a mortal insult, and had killed her for it.

Esther had given the Empress the timepiece and Mordecai -- and although Esther did not think of Mordecai as a gift to be offered, Vashti was absolutely sure that the Empress did -- and had uncovered Hmin as a threat to the Empress. And the Empress now expected three requests in return. Esther had made only two.

All this went through Vashti's mind in a flash. Esther, still in shock at what had happened with Hmin, did not reply. Xrxis' antennae started moving: _puzzlement_ , but Vashti had just seen how quickly that puzzlement could turn to harsh action. Before she could think twice she said boldly to the Empress, "Eminence, though I am not Liaison, let me speak." Her hand made the signal: _Receive._

Esther's face turned to Vashti, slowly, with a blank look. The Empress said, _Speak._

"What Esther desires above all things is to send a ship to Old Earth, the old home of the Terran people," said Vashti. "Give the Terrans a ship. Let a remnant of them return. Not to fight against the Empire, never that, but to rebuild what they had on Old Earth, in peace."

She thought, ending her speech, that she was an idiot, that she would be well served did the Empress destroy her after all. And yet she glanced sidelong at Esther and saw the surprise on her face, and that surprise giving way to a terrible hope that shone out of her eyes -- and knew that she did not regret what she had done.

 _Yourself?_ asked Xrxis, her large eyes turning towards Esther. _Will you also go?_

"Either yes or no, as you wish," Esther said. "If even a small part of my people go, and not myself, that would be enough. If I do go, I shall train a successor, so that you will not lack for a Liaison to our people."

 _Then it is done_ , said the Empress; and scooping up the timepiece in one claw she strode from the banquet room, leaving Vashti and Esther alone.

Esther looked as if she did not know whether to laugh or cry; Vashti understood exactly, for she felt the same. Esther breathed, "Vashti. We are going home. Even if it's only a small part of us humans, that would be enough -- oh, you understand, you do understand!" And she jumped up and embraced Vashti, and kissed her. And at the touch of Esther's lips, as the kiss deepened and Vashti started losing herself in it, awash in the sensation of Esther's body against hers and lips against hers, she knew that she was Esther's; and she saw from Esther's eyes that she felt the same.

*

A long while later, back in Vashti’s room, Vashti smoothed a tendril of hair over Esther’s ear and said to her, "Perhaps they will tell stories of what has happened here, back on Old Earth."

Esther smiled at Vashti then, and her smile was like a flower opening, like sunlight in a dark place.

"Perhaps they will."


End file.
